Ways To Cut Down On Your Children's Screen Time

 

Are you sick of looking at the top of your kids head at dinner, in the car, or anywhere else? I know I am! I am even tired of looking at the top of their friend's heads when they come over.  Parents, we are not innocent either. How many of you can say that you are constantly on your phone? Checking Facebook, email, texts, weather, playing a game, reading a book, etc., We are all making connections virtually but isn't it time we make a conscious effort to put those phones down and connect with the people we love!?

My friends and I have been discussing this for a while now. Our kids are on the phone all the time. Not like when we were kids and our parents could tell us it was time to hang up because they needed the phone. There are so many ways for our kids to connect with the rest of the world but NOT with us. Even when their friends come over, I hear zero talking. Why? Because their friends have their faces in their phones.   Even after school I drive one of the kid's  friends home and have to say, "put your phone down" so we can talk.   When did a "play date" become quiet time? When I was a kid if my friend was with me we would never shut up. Now I can hear a pin drop even with three girls in the  house.

 My kids do not have actual phones. They have older phones that we no longer have service on that we have allowed them to use if they are able to connect to a network. At home this is easy.  Every once in a while they ask when they will have one like their friends and we tell them it is not necessary at this time and what they have is fine.

I have instituted a schedule for the house where ALL electronics need to be put down for a few hours. Today I have taken Facebook off my phone and will now only get on it when I have a chance to sit at the computer. It takes way too much of my time and while I will miss it eventually I will get use to it.  I hope that by my kids seeing me less on the phone they will follow but I also think all of us need to do this!  In the coming years our kids will be home less and less. Friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, jobs, college, and eventually a career, and family of their own means you will see them less and less. Time flies and we need to spend more time together.

Here Are 4 Ways To Cut Down Your Kids Screen Time:

1. FIRST! Cut down your own time. Spend more time being available and present. We all know our kids learn by example so be the example. Take Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or whatever off your phone.  You may not know everything the moment it happens but you will eventually hear it so it is OK...remove it. I did and it was easy.

2. Do not allow phones or tablets at the table, in the car (unless you are on a road trip over 35 minutes), during a movie, or in the bathroom (Why do we do this? Hanging on the toilet isn't good for anyone).

3. Set Limits - There should always be limits. There is no reason for someone to have their face in the phone all day.  And...make sure they shut their devices down an hour before bed. You can watch TV as a family, read a book, color, draw, or just sit and talk. It is OK to press the power button, we will all be OK. With Windows 10 you can set a timer on your child's computer. I have one on my son's but not my daughter's because she doesn't have Windows 10 yet. It is the best thing I ever did!

4. Keep them busy. Yes! This sometimes means you need to schedule things. It requires work on your part. Watch a movie, play a game, get your sleeping bags and head to the living room floor for a "sleep-over", go outside when the weather is warmer, get on your bikes, go to the park, get involved in a community clean up, volunteer at an animal shelter, clean together, organize closets, drawers, etc. If you are doing it together it goes fast, they stay busy and you have the opportunity to talk about everything and anything.

So, if you are looking for me please text me or better yet call me. I no longer have Facebook on my phone. We should talk. I can't wait to catch up with you.

life update

 I took my son to Tao tonight and left Goddess home with her daddy. I believe it is good to spend time with each child individually. When we were walking out he asked, "just me and you?" Hopefully Goddess had some quality time with her daddy.

Speaking of her Daddy the Teach; why is it ok for him to have a bad few days and I am not allowed to have even an hour of a bad mood. Seriously, I couldn't really tell you what bug is up his arse because it is not like he talks about anything with me. It gets so annoying to live in the same house with someone and have no idea what is going on. He is extremely busy but, who isn't in this life. Yes, we have different kinds of busy, he is self employed and doing the job of 20 but why is he allowed to ignore or be left alone to work on his Accounting? When I was learning his Accounting I was running a house, taking care of kids and their schedules, maintaining my blogs and my friendships, paying bills and being his wife. Men could never do what we do. I know I couldn't do what he does either but....
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I am not even sure if he is taking over the Accounting or if he is learning this program and handing it back over to me.

This month I had an appointment with our Accountant. After listening to the dude I come home and told my husband what he told me and that this guy stressed me out and that when we could afford an Accountant we should consider using him.

Rewind - When my husband handed over Quickbooks to me, he gave me all of his books on running a business, business accounting, Quickbooks, Financial forms and state laws and regulations and wanted me to devour over the books and learn how to basically be the Controller/Accountant. I don't know about most people but I cannot do that. I don't learn that way. Reading technical books on something that has no interest for me will never sink in. This is not to say that there aren't folks who can learn like this. My husband can. He can read any technical book on any subject and learn it. More power to him. I am proud that he can do that. The problem is...he thinks everyone SHOULD be like that and trying to tell him that isn't possible makes him crazy. He thinks that I am lazy and looking for the easy way out. Not true...I can learn something new, if someone has already educated themselves like lets say a teacher. Then they can take what they learned and educate me through lesson plans and hands on training.
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Yesterday I had a playdate with my friend Susan. She and her daughter braved the random icy roads to stop by for a few hours.

It was cute to see her watch her God-brother play his Wii game. She just stood there staring at the TV. Occasionally she would stand directly in front of the TV and he would ask her to move. She is 2, she didn't and he played around her. I was so proud of him. No shoving or yelling just played around her. Good boy. I love that he understands she is a baby and that he needs to be patient.

Goddess on the other hand was really confused. She was upset that this wasn't a "play date". She thought that they would play. Babygirl is still very much on independent play, so much so that Goddess helped her mommy open her Christmas presents. Babygirl was much too busy buzzing to stop and open so Aunt Susan and Goddess sat down to open things. I always think it's cute when my daughter has conversations with another mommy. I love watching the dynamic from the outside.

I thought she understood that those were Babygirl's gifts and she was helping to open them. I really did think that until she said, "I can't believe you let them leave with all our gifts." Too funny.
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On the Goddess's front today she said, "I like Abuela. She is different than us. She has tan hair and we have brown." When I asked about the tan hair, she said no "pan." Not sure what that means but....funny to me anyway.

Also, I entered a giveaway for a bag today and when I asked her which one she would want to win she said, The Booby and The Beast one." Hahahahahah

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Time to put the kids to bed!
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Thankful and Grateful - The Storm of 2024

We are still digging out and cleaning up but we are so thankful and grateful that we are okay. I am a firm believer in it could always be worse. 

Thursday a freak unprecedented storm swept through my small community had my family and others running for cover, knocking down trees left and right, smashing through roofs, taking out all our power lines and devastating many. We were the lucky ones. 

I woke early to get to work as usual. My hours are from 7:30 but I tend to get there a half hour to an hour early because I hate jumping in the deep end of the pool when I first get to work. Wading in is better for my head and my soul. When I backed out of the driveway at 6:38 I took a photo of my house for my husband. He was asleep inside and the house looked beautiful. All the colors were amazing. Our Memorial Day flag was up, our normal flag was blowing, the trees were in full bloom, flowers so pink. It was just amazing.

At 7:15 I saw it getting really dark at work and went outside to watch this crazy rain storm sweep across the sky. I watched these crazy clouds start closing out any lightness. I called a co-worker to watch the storm with me. She told me there was too much lightening and I should head inside. At 7:20 I started walking into the building when I received a text from my daughter. “R U Okay?”

I turned away from coworkers and called her. “Mom we are having a tornado.” I can hear my husband’s voice it is shaky. They are telling me there is a lot of rain and to take cover because they were now getting hail. I told them to keep me in the loop and hung up telling a coworker t what I learned and to check on her family as we are both in the same town. 

Thankfully her family was okay. Mine started sending me pictures. That were devastating.

At 7:18 my husband was drinking his coffee looking out the living room window. He said the clouds were weird colors and stacked like a sandwich. The colors were odd and he remembers saying “that’s weird. Never saw anything like that before. Then the  wind started to kick up and spinning around the yard. All the trees were swaying, a very large tree from in front of us slammed down and he booked down the hallway telling me kids to get downstairs. My daughter had a friend over and she said as they were running down the stairs her friends fingers on hire shoulders were shaking. My husband was yelling, ,they had just opened their eyes to his banging on the door and all they heard was wind, hail and the thumping of trees and pole falling. 

I am so happy that my husband was working from home. If I was getting this message from her and the kids were alone I would have been freaking out. 

They got downstairs near our laundry room which is in the center of the house. 

I will forever be grateful, thankful and blessed that my family, house and the car was spared because my neighbors were not so lucky.

God is good! I was able to work my full day knowing he was with them.

My daughter sent me pictures throughout the day. The took forever to get to me and were poor quality due to WiFi but I got the gist. We were super lucky because it can always be worse and it was for so man

Nothing prepared me for what I saw when I finally got home. It took an hour. Usually it takes me 18 minutes. There were many road closures and still are depending on what they are working on. One road may be open in the morning but closed later so you need to give yourself a lot of time in case of that. 

Buses were hit with trees and trapped. People were taken by ATV home or to the school depending on the situation and thankfully no one was hurt! 

We are in a private community which means we are the responsibility of no township. We are part of a township but because we are not part of the village nor are we anywhere near the township we are part of no one is doing anything. In fact there is a community and a homeowner who were still trapped in their home until yesterday. Disgusting.

We are still cleaning up. My husband and my neighbors cut apart a massive tree that blocked our road with chainsaws, chains, a pick up truck and brute strength. My kids worked over the past few days like no one else each lifting over 1000 pounds of wood, logs and debris.

We are out over $1800 already because unless there is structural damage insurance covers nothing. 

They are saying microburst not tornado while others have confirmed a tornado. Whatever it was it was bad and we are still without cable/WiFi. We got our power back three days later but there are still generators running for the homes that had damage. We were lucky. It can always be worse. 

Spending time with my family over these past few days has been amazing. Everyone stepped up and worked hard. I am grateful! I am thankful! I am blessed!

 The first photo I got when my family opened the front door.

Some pictures I took when I got home

Summer Mall Trips = Money Spent

Last week my son asked if we could go to the mall on my first day off. I took him of course because I took Mondays and Fridays off to spend time with my kids so if he wants to go. We will go!

We went on Friday. He wanted to play some arcade games and bowl. When we got there, the first shop we passed he went in and bought himself three t-shirts, a letter jacket and a pair of socks. Then wanted to go into another store where he bought himself some plush Mario thingy. He did eventually bowl but ended up spending about $200. I bought myself a skirt, took the kids to lunch and eventually back home. I figured the mall was good for him because this was the first time he had his own debit cart with his own money. He didn't have to ask if he could have anything and just got whatever he wanted because it is his money.

Today we again went our separate ways at the mall.  I sadly had to return the skirt I bought because it was too small and finally met up with him where he again had a bag full of stuff again. I didn't ask what he got, it is none of my business. He has showed me more plushies. He wants to collect them. That's fine, like I said it is his money but NOW I took them to lunch again. That has to stop. I told them we cannot go to lunch every time we go out because I am only working 3 days a week this summer. My daughter, Goddess asked if she could kick in and I told her not this time. We will probably split the next lunch. I love going out and being with them but hate spending money especially when I am working less days and we are planning vacation, need work done on the house, need to put both kids in college this year and Christmas is only a few short months away. Come on PowerBall let me win this year so that I can quit my job and take my kids to lunch if we go out. 

I can see a future budgeting talking with him in the future but for now we will let it go so he can experience not always being able to afford what he wants as his bank balance gets lower. 

My Life In Pictures July 8 - July 14

 July 8 - Painting with different paint brushes. I love showing the class different ways to do things. We used a truck, a ball and this bit of bubble wrap to paint. 

July 9 - My daughter thought we looked funny standing at DMV and took this photo. She said, I looked so short. Yeah, you think? I am 4'11".

July 10 - My son's Godmother Bek and I headed out for a sauna session which was unbearable. I think I lasted about 10 out of the 30 minutes. UGH!

July 11 - Not even sure why I took this photo but it was the only photo of the day. Oh I remember. Bek sent it to me. She won!

July 12 - Got a little burnt at the pool today. UGH!

July 13 - Painting some cookies.

July 14 - Showing my class some items from the ocean. They loved holding the seahorse and starfish

My Life In Pictures June 25 - June 30

June 25 - My husband and I took the kids to the Summer's here fair the Fire Department throws. My husband has only come with us 1 year so it was nice to have him with us. My daughter's bestie and her mom met up with us this year so she had someone to pal around with. 

June 26 - My daughter and I got lemonade at the Fire Department's fair last night. We made our carrot juice and enjoyed it in our new cups. It contained carrots, apples, ginger and lemon. So good.

June 27 - This beauty and I went out for a lovely walk. We love walking and seeing the sights. 

June 28 - Sage is our craziest cat. She is our most vocal, cries for attention but the moment you give it to her, she wants you to get as far away from you as possible.

June 29 -Gifts from sweet people make my day. 

June 30 - My homemade acai bowl was delicious

Virus Contained

 

I work in Daycare and have been able to fight off most viruses over the past two years. This year it seemed like every time I turned around, someone was testing positive but I still kept on chugging until last Tuesday. I felt really tired when I got home from work and my back and neck hurt. This is normal working in Daycare but when I got on my yoga mat to stretch my joints hurt. Like really hurt. My arms felt like they couldn’t hold my plank and downward dog and child’s pose felt like the only thing I could muster. Wow, I thought; I’m out of shape. 

When I woke the next morning (Wednesday), to started the coffee and took my temp like I’ve been doing every morning and night for two years. Expecting all to be well, I looked and was about to rinse the thermometer when I saw 99.4. Huh? I text my boss to tell her I wouldn’t be in. While this isn’t a temp that in a perfect world would keep most people home, this was the first elevation for me and I do not want to bring anything into my already stressed workplace or get any of my classroom kids sick. Less than an hour later, I couldn’t smell a thing. I had been spraying Lysol when I realized I couldn’t smell it. I opened my vitamins, no smell, my essential oil, no smell and This was when I thought “nooooooo, it got me.”

My quarantined room

I wrote to my boss letting her know the new situation and she asked me to test. It seemed obvious to me and I was just going to quarantine but she explained she needed it to quarantine the class. I will do anything for my class. I also called the school to tell them my kids would not be in. 

Thankfully, other than being tired, no appetite or sense of smell I have been fine. I am however, very aware of my nose. Why?! It is so strange. I guess the inflammation is bad in there. 

My daughter set a cot up for me in the family room and by Friday morning I knew it was time to take her to the doctor. Thursday and Friday she woke with a headache and was complaining of a stiff back.  We spent Monday and Tuesday watching movies together so it would make sense.

I called for her results on Monday and was told positive. 

Great! Expected!

So here we are, day 1,003 I mean, Day 6 and while I am feeling ok, I still have a cough which I find normal considering I always have a drip. My husband has a “cold” from working 24 hours during the last storm and my son seems to be doing fine thank God.

We have managed to clean the house, do laundry, the kids have done online school, and we are knee deep in Netflix but as well as can be expected. 

While I cannot taste anything, I can tell the difference between salty and sweet. Preferring sweet but probably because I am on day 22 of Keto so sweet has been missed.

My suggests to you if you find yourself positive is rest! We do our best healing while sleeping.

Put Vicks Vapor Rub on your feet and chest. A friend mentioned, inside nose and behind ears but I have not done that. 

Take NyQuil at night. Keeps the cough at bay and I have slept for over 7 hours a night. This never happens. I am usually lucky if I get 4.50 hours of sleep according to my iWatch. 

Take Vitamin C, D3 and Zinc

Drink lots of liquids. I do about 6 glasses of water and two cups of hot water with lemon, cinnamon and honey.

Eat eve if you are not hungry. It gives you strength. The first two days I only had chicken broth and a scrambled egg. I wasn’t hungry but knew it was important to eat. 

Get fresh air even if you crack open a window and stand by it. It’s cold out but fresh air and sun is important especially if you are quarantined in the basement. 

I wish you all health and hope you are having a blessed day. I cannot wait to be past this and ironclad for 90 days. Whelp that is what I’ve been hearing anyway. The weirdest virus. Highly contagious but thankfully, manageable. Thank you Jesus

Belly Laugh Day - January 24, 2022

Belly Laugh Day which I have never heard of was started by Elaine Helle in 2005 to celebrate the gift of laughter. 

Laughter is by far one of my favorite things to do and the thing that most attracted me to my husband and to some of my friends and the reason I love spending most of my time with my daughter. She makes me laugh like no one else. 

These days everyone is butt hurt and offended over everything but back in the day, laughter was the best medicine. Now you have to rethink everything because you just may offend someone. This statement may very well offend someone. At 55 I truly think if it does, please move on. It is not your job to school someone on what may be offensive to you. We are all different and thankfully so. Watching standup comedians as a child I realized there were things my parents laughed over that I just didn't get and that may very well be you.  It is very well my own daughter. She hears me laughing at some comedian and comes into my room, stands there and says, "I don't get it." 

Whatever makes you laugh, share it on your socials today. Someone you know may just need to laugh at that very moment! Don't worry if you think it may not be funny to the masses because it will certainly upset someone somewhere. That is the way life is these days. However, remind yourself that the beauty of the internet is we can keep scrolling or if in person walk away. If you are one of those people who feels the need to school someone as to why something isn't funny or may not be funny to others, maybe share something you find funny instead. No one really wants to hear why it isn't funny to you. 

Here are some things that make me laugh:

Benny Hill

I Love Lucy

Silent Movie 

Movie Bloopers

Anna Kendrick

My Life In Pictures - June 15 - June 24

 June 15 - Hanging in the car with my kids. 

June 16 - The Moon. My class actually loved doing this. Using a toothbrush we made stars. They love being allowed to make a mess.

June 17 - My class is so into The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

June 18 - 19th - NOTHING

June 20 - A gift I got for my husband on Father's Day. I think I like it more than he does.

June 21 - 22 NOTHING

June 23 - My girl waiting for her hearing test at her yearly pediatrician's exam. She looks teen like here!

June 24 - Another Father's Day gift that I think I love more than he does.

My Life In Pictures - May 1 - May 15

 May 1 - I love this little area my husband set up by the creek. Those purple flowers are stunning with all that rock texture.

May 2 - Filtered me!

May 3 - My class painting their Mother's Day frames. They took such pride in their work and picking their moms's favorite colors. 

May 4 - Sometimes I take photos of songs I hear in the car so I can remember them for later. It isn't often I hear "new" music that I like.

May 5 - Just photos of my classes painted frames with their photo in it that I cannot share. 

May 6 - Jinxy and his whiskers!

May 7 - Mother's Day Meal at Outback.

May 8 - We added some yellow to the area. It looks great. 

May 9 - Me and My girl in filter. 

May 10 - One of my 2 year old's drawing a Q. I was so proud! This is totally a Q.

May 11 - How did this guy turn 18? I cannot believe it. He was only 2 when I started blogging. 

May 12 - Walking around with my girl and my sciatica pain. I spent years tying her shoes and now she ties mine. 

May 13 - Another set of baby birds! Hooray.

May 14 - My assistant's mom brought in a guinea pig for my class to see and touch. They loved it. 

May 15 - Just a hula hoop wreath I made for my ugly door.

I Hope You All Had An Amazing Christmas

Christmas has changed now that the kids are older. In some ways it is better and in other ways so sad. I miss the kids being small and excited about Christmas morning. 

Fortunately as a preschool teacher of toddlers I get to experience the excitement of kids just learning about the holiday. Which is fun too but seeing Christmas through a child’s eye is special. 

There are fewer gifts than the past but the kids know and understand about needs and wants and are respectful. Nothing they asked for was impossible so they got many of the things they wanted. 

My favorite part of the morning was the quest my husband created for my daughter. He had her open a box which contained a burnt scroll with a map. She had to follow the map to a “pot of silver” an ice cube holder under blue lights which contained another scroll with a map where she had to open a floor vent for her package. I love that he did it all on his own! He never does any thing for Christmas except get my gifts! 

Work On Stress Management With Buddha Board

We all have troubles, stress, situations or just things we need to let go of so that we can continue living our best life. Sometimes these situations take longer to fix and sometimes it just requires us to think on it and let it go,  move forward without the baggage. Right before we headed out on vacation last month we received Buddha Board, an artistic way to create and then let go without! 

Buddha Boards for relaxing doodling that disappears! 

It comes in 3 very affordable sizes that give a minimalist, artsy look to your coffee table, shelf, or anywhere. No reason to keep this in a closet. Have it available all the time so when the mood strikes you to create, make some swirls, write, even just to keep your hands busy while watching TV so you don't snack, Buddha Board has your back! 

I prefer the larger size, it is so pretty and honestly looks like art! With the elevated wood stand and well for your paintbrush. 

We used a soy sauce plate for our water, it just felt right!

Light a candle, grab some water, a paint brush and Buddha Board. While you paint, breathe  and think about nothing. Just let your creativity flow.

The 411:

I found it very relaxing! My artist daughter was stressed. She complained that it dries too fast for her creation. She loves art and drawing but had a difficult time with the fact that before she could even finish her art, it was disappearing. I am not an artist so my hand is heavier, my strokes, deeper, I simply used more water and less strokes because well, NOT a sketch artist. 

Here is her cat drawing she was doing of our Jinxy while he slept as we used Buddha Board. She hates it, It was after she decided to just sketch a larger piece so she could have something for my review. Can you see it? He is lying with his back to us, on a cushion! This was after she decided she couldn't do it because it disappears to fast. 

You will see this and many more things on my Holiday Gift Guide coming up very soon. 

To Purchase:  Visit Buddha Board or Amazon